Mainly about opera, but this sneaks in on the basis of a mention of the ballet problems:

A New Leader at Covent Garden, Unknown but Undaunted By ALAN RIDING for The New York Times

Antonio Pappano was 27 when he conducted his first opera, at the Norske Opera in Oslo. Five years later, in 1992, he was named music director of Belgium's main opera house, the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. Now, in a new career leap, he has just taken up the high-profile, high-risk post of music director at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

Only 42, he is succeeding Bernard Haitink (31 years his senior) without a London reputation to shield him. But in a way he is starting afresh.

His 10 years at the Monnaie were immensely successful. After his farewell concert in late June he was showered with red roses, while the orchestra thanked him with presents and a rousing excerpt from "Carmen." "The public gave him an ovation such as has rarely been heard or seen in Brussels," Stephan Moens reported in De Morgen, the Brussels daily. "After the grand finale of this great era, I too could not prevent myself from shedding a tear."

Let's make an opera Access to the arts lies at the heart of the government's culture policy. But has Labour's obsession with outreach gone too far? Martin Kettle fo Th Guardian reports from the front line - a music education project in the East End.

If you want to see the clearest possible manifestation of New Labour's policy for the arts in action, then you don't head for places like Tate Britain or the National Theatre. Instead you go in the other direction altogether. You get on the train at Liverpool Street station and head against the tide of commuters out through the early morning November fog into London's East End. At Godwin junior school in Newham, Jessica Summers is addressing a class of seven and eight year-olds in the middle of the school hall.

"Hello, year fours, I'm a singer and my name is Jessica," she says to the kids standing in a circle around her. "We're from the Royal Opera House. Are you ready to do some work this morning?"

She gets them to shake their right arms. Then their left arms. Then each leg in turn. Then to wiggle and shake everything they've got, all at the same time.

Exit Prince Charles, stage left Royal Ballet decides there's nothing like a Dame - Dame Beryl Grey is to pip the Prince to the post of patron, as other bodies fear a 'royal' prefix makes them look elitist and out of touch. By James Morrison for The Independent

The Royal Ballet, one of the most enduring bastions of royal patronage, is preparing to drop its regal figurehead for the first time since its foundation.

After months of consultation, the 44-year-old company is understood to be about to replace Princess Margaret, the inaugural president who died last February, with a mere civilian. In a move that comes as a snub to the Prince of Wales, many people's favoured candidate, the ballet is expected to appoint Dame Beryl Grey, 75, one of Britain's premier ballerinas and the company's vice-chairman.

The decision will open up a debate about whether it is still in the interests of charitable bodies to have members of the Royal Family as patrons.

One leading charity privately told The Independent on Sunday last week that having Prince Charles as patron had become a liability in the wake of the collapse of the Paul Burrell trial. It said that media coverage had shown the prince as pampered and profligate.

POOR Charles. After the stress of the Burrell trial it now seems the Prince of Wales is to be snubbed as the new figurehead of the Royal Ballet. Under the headline "Exit Prince Charles, stage left", the Independent on Sunday reported that the company is to choose a non-royal head for the first time in its history

Royal Opera House comes to the people Big screen brings culture to the masses. Vanessa Thorpe reports for The Observer.

Slough is not famous for its cultural highlights. The image of the town has suffered a series of blows over the last 50 years, from John Betjeman's frequently quoted line, 'Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough', to the calculated dreariness of The Office, the BBC2 sitcom set on a local trading estate. But Slough's resilient residents may have the last laugh because the town, together with the equally unlikely Gateshead, is now one of a few locations to be favoured by the Royal Opera House.

By the end of next summer, the pirouettes of prima ballerina Darcey Bussell will be just another part of the Tyneside scene, while live arias sung by Placido Domingo will be listed among Slough's civic amenities.

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